There are a lot of reasons why an MTG card can spike in price. Typically, these price spikes are incredibly violent and volatile, springing up out of nowhere. Brought about by a new piece of deck tech, an exciting spoiler, or a Commander reveal these spikes are ultimately unsurprising. What is surprising, however, is the recent 800% price spike of Echoing Assault which could have been seen coming.
Echoing Assault
- Mana Value: 4R
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Enchantment
- Card Text: Creature tokens you control have menace.
Whenever you attack a player, choose target nontoken creature that’s attacking that player. Create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except it’s 1/1. The token enters tapped and attacking that player. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
Released as part of the Family Matters Commander deck from Bloomburrow, Echoing Assault can provide a huge amount of value. While the card isn’t cheap, in more ways than one now, it’ll provide consistent and repeat value until it’s removed. If you have a deck full of powerful ETB effects and a color identity to support it, Echoing Assault is a fantastic card.
In an ideal world, this card can copy three of your creatures, one for each opponent. Ideally, each of these should have a devastating ETB effect, as there are a few drawbacks. For starters, each copy is only a 1/1 token, so don’t go copying Gigantosaurus. Additionally, the tokens created are sacrificed at the beginning of your end step, so don’t expect repeat value.
Essentially, it’s big ETB effects or bust when it comes to Echoing Assault, but that’s no bad thing. What is a bad thing, however, is that the creatures you copy need to be attacking. This inherently puts them at risk, so you’ve got to weigh up the potential risk versus reward. Despite this downside, Echoing Assault is still a fantastic card that fits in a lot of decks.
Thankfully, there is a card in Duskmourn: House of Horror that mitigates many of Echoing Assault’s risks. By using The Jolly Balloon Man and their own copy effect you can create disposable tokens to copy again. Should you have something like Anointed Procession then you can create six copies of one card without fear!
The Spike
While The Jolly Balloon Man does make this card better, it’s not the sole reason behind this spike. Instead, Echoing Assault is simply a good MTG card and players have been interested in it since its release. Looking at TCGplayer’s handy dandy sales graph, we can see consistent demand since Bloomburrow’s release date.
Over the past week, we can see that sales of Echoing Assault have increased slightly, but this is hardly an isolated spike. The card is simply a great value engine and can be used in a lot of decks. With this in mind, it’s only natural that the price of Echoing Assault has begun to increase as the constant demand has drained supply.
In terms of numbers, Echoing Assault used to be a $0.50 card at the start of September. Now that the supply has begun to dry up, however, prices have soared toward $4.99. Recent sales have technically pushed as high as $6.63, but this is technically an outlier for now.
Given the consistent demand for this card, it seems highly likely that Echoing Assault will continue to get more expensive. Sadly, we don’t have a crystal ball to know exactly how expensive it’ll be, but this surely isn’t the end of its spike.
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